“I finished Farah’s Period book a while ago, but it has really affected my view of the world. It’s not that I didn’t know about these problems, but somehow the way it came across with the variety of stories and perspectives and scholarship gave a very powerful impression of what women all over the world are up against, in these times when we ought to know better. Menstruation as a symbol of the absolutely embedded idea of women as ‘other’ and ‘dangerous’ and ‘polluting’. The courage of the women fighting against this. The dreadful denial of science. The importance of keeping watch over women’s rights.'”